


Home Sweet Home

by brunettebrawler56



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: F/M, married with a new baby, teeth rotting fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 00:40:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19801126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brunettebrawler56/pseuds/brunettebrawler56
Summary: An Arizona trash bag comes back from a girl's night out to her husband and baby.





	Home Sweet Home

An immense amount of work went into any night out that Tahani planned. It was doubled when it was her best friend’s first drink since she stopped breastfeeding. Eleanor had created a countdown to celebrate when her baby was fully reliant on formula and she and her sore boobs could start drinking again. Tahani had reserved VIP booths at four of Sydney’s hottest clubs, sprung for a driver for the evening, and planned for a catered breakfast to arrive at Eleanor’s place the next morning to make her shrimp and grits to cure the inevitable hangover. They’d dressed their best—Tahani in a flattering pouf dress and Eleanor in a black leather jacket and tight pants. They even pre-gamed in the car by listening to Tahani’s “good friend” Beyoncé. 

But instead of a night filled with booze and laughter and dancing, Eleanor had fallen asleep in the booth of their first club after exactly two tequila shots like a total lightweight. 

She tried to rally for Tahani’s sake, but it was useless. Having a six-month-old was exhausting and there was no use trying to drag on. And so, she landed back in her Sydney brownstone, an hour later with little to show for it but a bigger yawn than when she left. 

Balancing on one foot and leaning on the kitchen’s counter top, she slid off her shoes in the dark house. The kitchen island was littered with bottles, binkies, teething rings, and coffee mugs. She surveyed the damage in the living room next. Blankets and toys were scattered the soft carpet. There was a massive taupe stain on the pale pink walls, a potted vine plant had been knocked off the end table, and Mister Rogers was still playing on the tv, though muted. 

Baby Mary was a handful. Giggly, independent, and decisive; Eleanor thought she took after her more than Chidi. But babies were all about instinct. What Eleanor was really excited about was what type of person Mary would become as she got older. Sure, she was worried about her own mothering skills. But she was proof that kids could overcome their childhood if she truly messed things up. There was a stack of parental ethics books on the coffee table that Chidi had been working his way through. He’d already mapped out in detail how to help her through common scenarios for toddlers—how to share, how to communicate her feelings, if it was okay to tattle on another kid. But right now, Mary’s sole interests were bottles and stuffed animals. And that was perfectly fine by Eleanor.

After righting the fallen plant, she padded down the hallway and stopped right outside of the decidedly-not clown themed nursey. The baby wasn’t in the crib, so she followed the snores to the bedroom. The door opened with a soft creek.

The sight made her chest fill up with bees. Or was that warmth? It was hard to tell. Through the soft light of the window, she could see Mary sprawled on top of Chidi’s chest, snoring like a champ. Her little flat nose wiggled and scrunched, but her long lashes remained resting on her chubby brown cheeks. She had her dad’s square little chin but her mom’s dainty ears. With drool leaking from her open mouth, she looked like she’d had the rager that Eleanor was supposed to have.

Chidi was a disaster. Both his red plaid pajama pants and his white tee had mysterious green stains. His boxy black glasses were skewed and even sleeping, he managed to look exhausted. Still, he was a babe and she was relieved to come home to him.

Eleanor dragged off her fun club wear and shrugged on one of Chidi’s old St. John’s University shirts and a pair of shorts. There was just enough space for her to crawl next to him and settle in for the night. He stirred at the shifted mattress. “Eleanor?”

She turned off the light on her night stand and whispered, “My bad. Thought I wouldn’t wake you up.”

Mary gave an errant yawn before passing back out. Chidi patted the baby’s butt supportively, then turned to see Eleanor better in the dark. “What’re you doing back so early?”

The baby’s cloudy hair smelled like baby shampoo and her tiny snore was cuter than a litter of kittens; distracting her from answering for a beat. “All of Tahani’s planning was wasted on me. Don Patron and I barely waved at each other before I pulled a Weekend At Bernie’s in a booth. She had to wake me up mid-Ariana Grande song to leave.”

“I’m sorry. I knew you were looking forward some time with friends.”

“I was, but it’s not like Tahani won’t be thrilled to set up another night out next week,” She sighed, cuddling into his shoulder. “Maybe I can con her into renting out a buffet that has plasma TV’s. I need to watch some trashy TV and eat my weight in shrimp.”

He whispered, “Did you know the rubber shrimp Jason brought Mary to play with is actually a dog toy?”

Eleanor had had her suspicions but wasn’t going to pass up a chance for her kid to be introduced to her favorite thing on the planet. Next to her and her dad, of course. Unless she was hungry, and then it was a three-way tie.

Chidi asked, “Were you worried about me taking care of Mary?”

She was determined to nip that concern in the bud and said firmly, “Not even for a second, Cheeds.”

“Even after seeing the mess we made in the living room?”

It did look a lot more like when it was just Eleanor and Mary. Her nose rubbed a ‘no’ into his shoulder. “I trust you all the way, handsome. You know that. I just came back because I was tired. And falling asleep. And I guess in a way, maybe I exaggerated my tiredness because… I missed you two.”

A lazy, knowing smile crept over his face at her honesty. “We missed you too.”

She curled forward to give Mary a peck on her cheek. Then she moved up to give Chidi a solid kiss. He returned it. And as she burrowed deeper into his side, she decided this was always going to beat any night out that anyone could possibly plan.

**Author's Note:**

> Mary's named after Mary Wollstonecraft, a philosopher and advocate of women's rights.


End file.
